MANY vendors and residents have expressed concern over new by-laws that ban them from selling their wares in Harare’s central business district (CBD).
REPORT BY PHYLLIS MBANJE
Under the new regulations called the Harare (Hawkers) by-laws 2013, which were gazetted in May this year, no person shall engage another to carry the business of hawking unless he or she is in possession of a valid hawker’s employers’ licence.
The licence must specify the number of hawkers that the holder may employ or retain as an agent.
The new regulations say that no hawker shall remain stationary while conducting his or her business for more than 15 minutes.
“Provided that after the period of 15 minutes, he or she shall not be in a position within the radius of 100 metres from the place at which he or she was at the commencement of the 15 minutes period,” says the new by-laws.
Vendors criticised the new regulations, saying they were designed to drive them out of business, at a time when a lot of people in Harare survived on hawking.
One vendor, Moses Tendera, who sells an assortment of wares ranging from sweets and cigarettes to phone chargers, said the new by-laws would impoverish a lot of people.
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“You would think their mandate is to bring peace and order, but the opposite will occur,” said Tendera.
The by-laws also say the council may refuse to issue or renew a hawker’s licence, if in its opinion “the issue of renewal would adversely affect any existing trade or businesses carried out in the area.”
Apart from the general restrictions, a hawker would need to fork out a US$20 application fee. If the application is approved, the one-year licence will cost US$120, an amount which is beyond most of the vendors, who are leading a hand-to-mouth life.
On penalties, council officials “can seize goods and take them to a secure compound”, but no receipts would be issued.
However, some vendors were on Friday not aware of the new requirements.
Harare Residents Trust (HRT) director Precious Shumba said council had dismally failed to address the issue of CBD vending.
“They have contributed to the confusion that prevails in the CBD, by their lack of appreciation of the challenges experienced by the poor communities,” said Shumba.
He also said council must involve people affected by such regulations instead of resorting to “exclusionary approaches, that only perpetuate confusion and corruption among the hawkers affected and the municipal police, who have a responsibility to enforce city bylaws”.
“The City of Harare has no justification to exclude residents who are poor to conduct their hawking business in the CBD, without providing them with alternative and conducive market stalls to sell their wares,” said Shumba.
“We have suggested the space in Rezende Street stretching to Robert Mugabe Way may be closed to all traffic from 5pm to 9pm or 10pm daily and allow vendors to set up their market stalls.”
He added: “The current situation is that most of the vendors come into the CBD around 4pm or 5pm because the municipal police would have left, council can harness the opportunity to increase revenue inflows”.
Alpha Media Holdings (AMH) group editor-in-chief, Vincent Kahiya blasted council saying the new regulations would adversely affect vendors, including those in the business of selling newspapers.
“This strong-arm tactic in local governance is unacceptable and injurious to business. Council cannot start licensing vendors and collecting high fees of this sort without first providing proper facilities for doing business,” Kahiya said.
“Good municipal administration calls for consultation and consensus with stakeholders. Council is failing this very basic test.”
Alpha Media Holdings are the publishers of The Standard, NewsDay and Zimbabwe Independent. These papers, and others from Zimpapers and the Associated Newspapers of Zimbabwe are sold by newspaper vendors, who stand to be affected by the by-laws.
vending has always been illegal—Gwindi
Harare City Council spokesperson, Leslie Gwindi said banning vendors from the CBD was not new.
“The issue of vendors being banned from selling their wares is not a new provision. It has always been council’s position that the vendors should be at their designated areas,” he said.
Gwindi said council was short of manpower to enforce the operation of vendors in specified areas.
“We are overwhelmed such that it becomes difficult to control the vendors but our aim is to maintain order.”
On the high licence fees, Gwindi said the issue was an “administrative” one that can be addressed.
‘vending our only source of income’
Mavis Gandari, a hawker (pictured right), who operates along Kwame Nkrumah Avenue, said it was unfair that council wanted them out of the CBD.
“This is the only source of income for me and my family,” said Gandari. “I do not know [anything] about the new clause, but council officials come on a daily basis and harass us. They grab our stuff and share it among themselves.”
Gandari complained that the officials asked for bribes, and do not release the stuff that they would have taken.
The vendors said it would be cumbersome for them to constantly move around as required by the by-laws, as the CBD is always congested with people and vehicles.
